{"id":105323,"date":"2025-02-27T15:39:54","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T13:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal"},"modified":"2025-02-28T00:29:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T22:29:48","slug":"blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Blessed Mhlanga Being Treated Like A Convicted Criminal&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) senior journalist, Blessed \u201cDhara\u201d Mhlanga, appeared at the Harare Magistrates\u2019 Court on Thursday wearing prison attire.<\/p>\n<p>Mhlanga is facing charges under Section 164 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly transmitting messages that incite violence.<\/p>\n<p>The charges are related to interviews Mhlanga conducted with Blessed Geza, a liberation war veteran and ZANU PF central committee member, on January 27 and February 11, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Mhlanga had initially appeared in court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody by Harare Magistrate Farai Gwatima, pending a ruling on his bail application, which was set for Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the bail ruling, Mhlanga was made to wear prison garb, sparking reactions from some who have raised concerns about the fairness of this treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Critics have pointed out that other figures, such as journalist Hopewell Chin\u2019ono and politician Job Sikhala, were allowed to wear their own clothes while in remand.<\/p>\n<p>Before the ruling, Abel Runga spoke to Change Radio, describing Mhlanga\u2019s treatment as a case of selective justice. Said Runga:<\/p>\n<p>Blessed Mhlanga should not be treated like a convicted prisoner, especially since the state\u2019s case against him is weak. He also complained that the arrest in the first place is an attack on constitutional provisions, particularly Section 61 which guarantees the people of Zimbabwe the freedom of expression, Section 62 which guarantees the right to access information, and Section 141 which protects public participation in law-making processes.<\/p>\n<p>Toneo, a local media personality, has called for a media blackout in response to Mhlanga\u2019s detention. He said:<\/p>\n<p>If they don\u2019t give Blessed Mhlanga bail, my media house will stop publishing or posting news for 14 days.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zimbabwe<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) senior journalist, Blessed \u201cDhara\u201d Mhlanga, appeared at the Harare Magistrates\u2019 Court on Thursday wearing prison attire. Mhlanga is facing charges under Section 164 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for allegedly transmitting messages that incite violence. The charges are related to interviews Mhlanga conducted with Blessed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":105322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[7387,19],"class_list":["post-105323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-parties","tag-blessed-mhlanga","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Blessed Mhlanga Being Treated Like A Convicted Criminal&quot; - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) senior journalist, Blessed \u201cDhara\u201d Mhlanga, appeared at the Harare Magistrates\u2019 Court on Thur ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Blessed Mhlanga Being Treated Like A Convicted Criminal&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) senior journalist, Blessed \u201cDhara\u201d Mhlanga, appeared at the Harare Magistrates\u2019 Court on Thur ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-27T13:39:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-27T22:29:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/02\/sm_1740658843.506594.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1120\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"&#8220;Blessed Mhlanga Being Treated Like A Convicted Criminal&#8221;\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-27T13:39:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-27T22:29:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/02\/sm_1740658843.506594.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Blessed Mhlanga\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/blessed-mhlanga-being-treated-like-a-convicted-criminal\",\"name\":\"\\\"Blessed Mhlanga Being Treated Like A Convicted Criminal\\\" - 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